Overview

I'm an experienced fiction and non-fiction editor with over ten years' experience and editorial consultant freelancing for authors, publishers, agents and editorial agencies.

I work closely with authors on all aspects of finishing and publishing their book, including structural editing and story development, line editing and advising on publishing strategy.

I support and guide authors through every part of the process, from initial concept through to finished book, offering in-depth assessment of their work and encouragement, helping to make every book the best it can be.

For agents, scouts and an editorial agency I read and produce manuscript reports on new fiction and non-fiction in order to seek out new talent. I also edit books under contract for publishers, from major development edits – guiding an author through complex structural revisions and sorting out story and character issues – through to the fine-tuning of line editing.

Awards

Work experience

Freelance Editor and Editorial Consultant

Self-employed

Available for development editing, manuscript assessment, scouting, consulting, proofreading and copywriting.

Senior Fiction Editor

Myriad Editions

January, 2009
–
June, 2016
(over 7 years)

Commissioning editor discovering new talent and supporting writers through the launch and development of their literary careers.

I worked with bestselling authors including Elizabeth Haynes (INTO THE DARKEST CORNER – Amazon's Best Book of the Year, New York Times Bestseller), Tom Connolly (THE SPIDER TRUCES – shortlisted for the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award), Isabel Ashdown (GLASSHOPPER – Mail on Sunday Novel Competition winner), Jonathan Kemp (LONDON TRIPTYCH – Authors' Club Best First Novel Award) and Lisa Cutts (NEVER FORGET).

Portfolio (11 selected works)

Catherine has been enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic, spontaneous – Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell.But there is a darker side to Lee. His erratic, controlling and sometimes frightening behaviour means that Catherine is increasingly isolated. Driven... read more

Catherine has been enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic, spontaneous – Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell.But there is a darker side to Lee. His erratic, controlling and sometimes frightening behaviour means that Catherine is increasingly isolated. Driven... read more

Ellis is obsessed by the spiders that inhabit the crumbling house where he lives with his dad, his older sister and Great-aunt Mafi – and also by a need to find out more about his mother, whose death overshadows the family’s otherwise happy existence. He is a sensitive soul; awkward and out of place most of the time but funny, too, and with an embarrassing habit of speaking his thoughts aloud,... read more

Ellis is obsessed by the spiders that inhabit the crumbling house where he lives with his dad, his older sister and Great-aunt Mafi – and also by a need to find out more about his mother, whose death overshadows the family’s otherwise happy existence. He is a sensitive soul; awkward and out of place most of the time but funny, too, and with an embarrassing habit of speaking his thoughts aloud,... read more

Portsmouth, 1984. Thirteen-year-old Jake’s world is unravelling as his father and older brother leave home, and his mother plunges into alcoholic freefall.Despite his turbulent home life, Jake is an irrepressible teenager and his troubled mother is not the only thing on his mind: there’s the hi-fi he’s saving up for, his growing passion for Greek mythology (and his pretty classics teacher), an... read more

Portsmouth, 1984. Thirteen-year-old Jake’s world is unravelling as his father and older brother leave home, and his mother plunges into alcoholic freefall.Despite his turbulent home life, Jake is an irrepressible teenager and his troubled mother is not the only thing on his mind: there’s the hi-fi he’s saving up for, his growing passion for Greek mythology (and his pretty classics teacher), an... read more

"London itself is as powerful a presence here as the three gay men whose lives it absorbs." —The Times Literary Supplement"Vivid and visceral, London Triptych cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history." —Jake Arnott, author of The Long FirmRent boys, aristocrats, artists, and criminals populate this sweeping novel in which author Jonathan Kemp skillfully interweaves the lives a... read more

"London itself is as powerful a presence here as the three gay men whose lives it absorbs." —The Times Literary Supplement"Vivid and visceral, London Triptych cuts deep to reveal the hidden layers of a secret history." —Jake Arnott, author of The Long FirmRent boys, aristocrats, artists, and criminals populate this sweeping novel in which author Jonathan Kemp skillfully interweaves the lives a... read more

Few kidnap victims grow up to become police officers – but this is exactly what Nina Foster did.With former rescuer DCI Stan McGuire as her mentor and John (‘Wingsy’) Wing as her partner, she thrives on the pace and banter that goes with the job – until a frenzied stabbing leads to her first murder Investigation.As the body count increases and each new discovery tests her professionalism and c... read more

Few kidnap victims grow up to become police officers – but this is exactly what Nina Foster did.With former rescuer DCI Stan McGuire as her mentor and John (‘Wingsy’) Wing as her partner, she thrives on the pace and banter that goes with the job – until a frenzied stabbing leads to her first murder Investigation.As the body count increases and each new discovery tests her professionalism and c... read more

Set during the years of the British Raj, Umi Sinha's unforgettable debut novel is a compelling and finely wrought epic of love and loss, race and ethnicity, homeland - and belonging. Lila Langdon is twelve years old when she witnesses a family tragedy after her mother unveils her father's surprise birthday present - a tragedy that ends her childhood in India and precipitates a new life in Suss... read more

Set during the years of the British Raj, Umi Sinha's unforgettable debut novel is a compelling and finely wrought epic of love and loss, race and ethnicity, homeland - and belonging. Lila Langdon is twelve years old when she witnesses a family tragedy after her mother unveils her father's surprise birthday present - a tragedy that ends her childhood in India and precipitates a new life in Suss... read more

One morning in May 2003, on the cyclone-ravaged island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, the body of a man washes up on the beach. Six weeks previously, the night Tropical Cyclone Kalunde first gathered force, destruction of another kind hit twenty-six-year-old Genie Lallan and her life in London: after a night out with her brother she wakes up in hospital to discover that he's disappeared. Wh... read more

One morning in May 2003, on the cyclone-ravaged island of Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean, the body of a man washes up on the beach. Six weeks previously, the night Tropical Cyclone Kalunde first gathered force, destruction of another kind hit twenty-six-year-old Genie Lallan and her life in London: after a night out with her brother she wakes up in hospital to discover that he's disappeared. Wh... read more

Voiced by Donna and her streetwise god-daughter Aurora, this thrillingly original crime novel unfolds at breakneck speed – at once furious, tender and heartbreaking.Lesbian gangster and street poet Donna runs the all-female Bronte Close Gang. Carla, single parent and part-time MC, is her closest friend and trusted second-in-command. Together they carve out an empire in the toughest streets of ... read more

Voiced by Donna and her streetwise god-daughter Aurora, this thrillingly original crime novel unfolds at breakneck speed – at once furious, tender and heartbreaking.Lesbian gangster and street poet Donna runs the all-female Bronte Close Gang. Carla, single parent and part-time MC, is her closest friend and trusted second-in-command. Together they carve out an empire in the toughest streets of ... read more

Joel Burns has always believed his father is still alive. His mother Jackie has long been glad to know Gilberto is dead.When a sighting on a news report from Rio de Janeiro suggests Joel might be right, he travels to Brazil determined to find his long-lost father. Nelson, a down-and-out musician guided by the spirits of Jesus, Yemanjá and his late Aunt Zila, helps Joel retrace his childhood st... read more

Joel Burns has always believed his father is still alive. His mother Jackie has long been glad to know Gilberto is dead.When a sighting on a news report from Rio de Janeiro suggests Joel might be right, he travels to Brazil determined to find his long-lost father. Nelson, a down-and-out musician guided by the spirits of Jesus, Yemanjá and his late Aunt Zila, helps Joel retrace his childhood st... read more

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